Why Do Expensive Hotels Charge for Wifi?

http://priceonomics.com/why-do-expensive-hotels-charge-for-wifi/

by Kopion • 12 years ago

23 12 12 years ago

priceonomics.com

webmaven• 12 years ago

Very US-centric. Article fails to explain why expensive hotels elsewhere in the world manage to provide free wifi.

alexmayyasi• 12 years ago

I think it's been mine, but I don't have the monies to have gone to fancy hotels all over the world.

Where all have you found the expensive hotels to consistently have free wifi?

SystemOut• 12 years ago

I'd be interested in knowing where expensive hotels tend to provide free wifi? In China almost none of the hotels provided it for free or as an included service. That being said, many times I'd get it included in my rate if I pre-payed or booked ahead depending on the time of year and the promotions they were offering. But it wasn't just "free wifi" like many of the discount chains tend to offer here in the US and elsewhere.

hartator• 12 years ago

I think the analysis of the article is not really well worked.

For example, failure to provise to benchmark. For example, no real statistics or survey. For example, not everyone cares about internet. For example, paid internet is usually not really good...

midnitewarrior• 12 years ago

Because they can.

theandrewbailey• 12 years ago

This same reasoning can be used for why those same expensive hotels don't have free continental breakfast.

When I was a kid, I went with my dad to union conventions, where the union would always put us in the nicest hotel. I'm sure it broke my parents' cheapskate hearts that there was never free breakfast, so we always went to a McDonald's or something nearby every morning.

nmjohn• 12 years ago

They missed the largest reason completely.

It is because their main customer is there on business, and their company, not themselves is picking up the tab. And if the company is picking up the tab, there is absolutely no reluctance to get the wifi.

And the companies don't care, because the employee needs the wifi to work, so $15 or whatever it is, is a small price to pay for being able to have the employee work remotely, which a decade ago was all but impossible.

baha_man• 12 years ago

No they didn't:

"The most common explanation for why fancy hotels charge for wifi is that their customers are not sensitive to price: rich customers, especially business travelers who charge everything to the company, don’t care about a $10 surcharge..."

cge• 12 years ago

This seems like a rather nonsensical reason devised by hotels that charge for wifi. In fact, the quotes they give are actually from companies that do paid hotel wifi. The argument is very similar to arguments about pricing, monopoly-protection and net non-neutrality regulations for ISPs: that somehow, high prices and abusive regulations are necessary to provide decent bandwidth.

It would be very interesting to see an analysis of internet connection quality at hotels with paid vs. free wifi. In my anecdotal experience, the paid wifi has often been worse. To be fair, paid wifi seems most often to be present at hotels hosting conferences, and the conferences do bring quite a few users... but if we listen to this argument, isn't that the situation that we are paying to prevent?

Gustomaximus• 12 years ago

As a rule I never book a hotel that charges for Wifi. It's not just premium brands but a good litmus test for hotels in general. I've found those that charge for Wifi try to profit from you at more points, be that charging directly or cutting corners and generally offer a poorer experience.

cityhall• 12 years ago

Business travel is booked at particular price points, $150, $300, etc. based on the employee's rank in the company. On top of that there's a daily allowance for incidentals like room service, parking, and wifi, so the hotels overcharge to extract as much of it as possible. You're much less likely to see wifi charges at boutique hotels or at resorts where there are fewer business travelers.

There's also a budgeting issue. A hotel spending hundreds of thousands of dollars installing wifi is going to want to recoup that cost directly instead of assigning it to overhead, and once they start collecting fees the revenue is hard to give up. A hostel can just add a $50 consumer router to their existing internet connection.

mmaldacker• 12 years ago

What? A quick google tells me that ritz-carlton, intercontinental and other luxury hotels like kempinski all provide free wifi. I seriously doubt other luxurious hotels would charge you for wifi.

Why Do Expensive Hotels Charge for Wifi?

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